Rachelle's Reading List, Friday, January 28th, 2011

From the resourceful Egyptian protesters finding ways to showcase their environment to the rest of the world, to the secret genius of Charlie Sheen, there's mucho going on today. Why Facebook makes us all feel like losers, Barbie as a serial killer, and a great spy vs. spy Internet video! Everything is bananas. I'm blaming it on the snow...
[Police shoot high powered water at peaceful praying protesters]

1. Egyptian protest. The world is changing. Here's some things to catch you up on all things Egypt:

First, a simple reminder on the beautiful complexity of the situation, and humanity in general. We are watching history. [MikeHudack]

This is pretty great: "Can someone explain the Egypt situation to me? (and the rest of us uninformed, please?) [Ask Reddit]

Even though Twitter is blocked by government officials, there are now literally THOUSANDS of avenues to access Twitter on (ours being one of them). Hundreds of protesters have taken to "tweet" real time data via LinkedIn. [Soup]

Is all of this making Malcolm Gladwell rethink his position on social media as dissident tools? Great question! [@KBAndersen]

2. There is snow on the ground. A lot of it. And, you guys....we get it. I'm convinced that if we all stop talking about it, it will magically go away. A rare inside look at my FB photos page which I have highlighted:

And now to go back to talking about it! Being the competitive person I am, and hearing that we have a shot at breaking the record for the snowiest winter in NYC ever, I'm totally going 180 and going to start embracing the snow. I love this, "Two Feet of Snow: shot by Dave Morin:

Also, check out this guy who went jogging in Times Square during the blizzard SANS shirt. "A group of cops fist-pumped him and he fist-pumped back. Weird times we live in...." [Baxterp2]

3. The truth about Davos: what happens when you don't get invited to any parties. Seriously though, the parties are usually the most crucial indicator of status at ANY organized convention. Henry Blodget felt like a loser last night. [BI]

4. Charlie Sheen is, as Smac would say, "Digging it the most." I'm convinced that Sheen is a secret genius and that all of this is just a giant present to all of us in media land. He is certainly not taking his role of "bad boy" lightly. Here are the facts: He had a BRIEFCASE (a briefcase!) full of blow. He apparently wants to be the patriarch of a HUGE "porn family" composed of his favorite adult stars, and he wants them all to live in a mansion down the street from his own house. [TMZ] This photo happened. [Gawker] He was hospitalized yesterday from a "hernia" caused by laughing too hard at the television set. [Gawker] And, he gets paid $2mil a week, making him the best paid actor in television. Viva Charlie!

8. Elizabeth Spiers's famous Launch School starts this Sunday! [Spiers]

9. Taco Bell responds to the rumor going around this week that their beef was not real. I asked Sarah Kunst, an avid Taco Bell goer, her thoughts: "Yeah, but I don't know if I can believe it." Who knows what to believe anymore... [DailyWhat]

10. Well, this is something. The Times explores the record level of stress found in College Freshmen. Though I'm not sure this is such a bad thing. Maybe we will make more productive students and have fewer stoners walking around. Or it could turn out that we have more stoners walking around in an effort to try and find themselves. [NYT]

"By showcasing the most witty, joyful, bullet-pointed versions of people's lives, and inviting constant comparisons in which we tend to see ourselves as the losers, Facebook appears to exploit an Achilles' heel of human nature." [Slate]

14. Tumblweeds. Speaking of all things Tumblr, most of this list is built off of my tumblr dash. So? How do I feel about the new "Tumbleweeds?" I'm not sure to be honest. It seems to be riling everyone in tumbleland up though, which I think is always a good thing. That being said, I haven't had a chance to really tumble into tumblweeds, but I'm going to do my best to not be a hater. [Tumblweeds]

18. A history of Hip Hop through beat-box. This is a cool video. [TheAtlantic]

19. Flavor Flav vs. KFC: A Dispatch From Flav's Fried Chicken. That's right, my fav, Flavor Flav is in the Atlantic for his new restaurant in Clinton, Iowa. [Atlantic]

20. And, speaking of fried chicken...when I was in SE Asia over the holidays I was so surprised to see KFC everywhere. Way way more than I saw McDonalds. I was so taken back by the number of KFCs that I shot this photo (left). Glad that I was actually onto something! Bloomberg reported that McDonald's was no match for KFC in China, [Bloomberg], which, isn't, you know, Saigon, but close enough. Also, apparently, circumcision parties at KFC are all the range in Asia! [PeterFeld]

21. I love physicist Brian Greene and his attempts at bringing quantum physics into general discussions. Check out this exchange he had with Colbert last night: [InOtherNews]

GREENE: Math describes how your particles move; how they behave; how they interact. You are a bag of particles governed by the laws of physics.
COLBERT: That... is a great pickup line.

22. Finally, I'll leave you with this Internet gem Sarah Kunst found for me I just found today on my own bec I'm so brilliant. First, for context, a video of Wine TV's Gary Vaynerchuck's video response that anyone who emails him receives. Then, Rex Sorgatz doing a parody of Gary's video. People famous for being on the Internet making fun of other people who got famous via the Internet, on ...you guessed it... the Internet? It's so spy vs. spy!